LifeisXbox’s Construction Simulator review | Simulation games find a way to Xbox more frequently than in previous years. We could discover the world through bee eyes in Bee Simulator, crashed a plane in Flight Simulation, cleaned the metro in Powerwash, or cut the grass from some rich people’s garden in Lawn Mowing Simulator. In Construction Simulator we take control over heavy and large machinery to do all sorts of tasks in the EU or US. There are two kinds of simulation games, those who don’t take themselves seriously (Bee simulation or Zoo Tycoon) or extremely difficult-to-learn experiences. Construction Simulator is without a doubt part of the second, hard-to-learn experience. Nothing wrong with that, but prepare to invest a lot of time into repetitive construction chores. Construction Simulator isn’t for everyone but the idea behind it and all the possibilities are pretty awesome!
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by PR/publisher, this review is the personal opinion of the writer.
My first hour in Construction Simulator was a busy one, I moved dirt that was blocking a road, removed a car in a sinkhole, delivered a generator to a supermarket, and fixed someone’s roof. All of that in one hour! Learning how to control 70 officially licensed vehicles, machines and equipment comes with a learning curve, luckily the game slowly explains everything with written tutorials. You might be surprised to read that this simulation game has a pretty neat story that connects all the jobs that you have to do around the city. 2 massive maps, one in Europe and one in the US will give you enough content to easily allow for over 150 hours of playtime. There is even an Achievement for playing the game for 160 hours, I truly wonder how many people will be able to earn that.
You’ll be driving a lot, getting resources, and dropping it off with a crane or reach truck. My first issue with Construction Simulator started here, it doesn’t really matter where you drive there is no difference between dry or wet tarmac, dirt roads, or on grounds you aren’t supposed to drive. Steering is really slow and sometimes unresponsive resulting in some unwanted situations. So driving could have been done better but the controls for actually using the equipment are spot on. First, you’ll always switch your vehicle in, what I like to call, working mode. This will change the control input so you can drill, take something and move it with a crane, and so on. Most of this is done with analog sticks and works genuinely effectively and as second nature. It was a blast to learn how to control the more heavy machines, this doesn’t mean I can do it in real life but I was expecting some more boring control schemes.
Visually Construction Simulator features so great effects, catching sand and dropping it somewhere else is nicely done. Everything is very detailed and the lighting engine does wonder in making things believable. Series X has far superior-looking games though so I was a bit surprised to see so many performance issues, you regularly have small screen freezes for example. As if the game engine can’t follow what is happening on screen, a bit annoying but this only happens while driving around.
Construction Simulator is a game that has a niche following, I don’t expect to see my friends playing this. However, I am confident that people who want to give this a try will have a good time for the first few hours. Things do become rather grindy, large building sites will require lots of fetch materials quests. This is when they started to lose me, although you have the complete freedom to tackle these things how you want. For completionists, you can discover both maps and find new locations but be prepared to invest a lot of time! You have an achievement to play 160 hours and drive 1000 km.
How long to beat the story | 50 hours
How long to achieve 1000G | 160 hours (Yes, really)
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